Synthesis of Ti3AlC2 ceramic by high-energy ball milling of elemental powders of Ti, Al and C

Synthesis of the ternary carbide Ti3AlC2 by high-energy ball milling of elemental Ti, Al and C powders with a stoichiometric composition was tentatively investigated. The results show that high content Ti3AlC2 was successfully obtained after ball milling of powder mixture only for 3 h. The milled products consist of powder and a coarse granule with 8 mm in diameter, and both are mainly composed of Ti3AlC2 with TiC as impurity based on X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) characterization. It is believed that a mechanically induced self-propagating reaction (MSR) was triggered to form Ti3AlC2 and TiC during high-energy ball milling process.